


Maybe We Can Heal

by BrokenCelestial



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Character Death, Diagon Alley, Divorced Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Guilt, Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban, M/M, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, One Shot, Post-Canon, Pre-Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tea, dead wife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27423490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenCelestial/pseuds/BrokenCelestial
Summary: Harry Potter agrees to meet with Draco many years the events of The War. They meet for tea and have a nice chat, trying to find a way to be friends and make up for the way they treated each other during their childhoods.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Kudos: 43





	Maybe We Can Heal

Childhood enemies stood as two strangers in front of the Leaky Cauldron, eyes darting between the other and the old building. It had been such a long time since they had last seen each other. So long, in fact, that any ill-feeling towards the other man had been forgotten and now they stood there in the cold air as those children from so many years ago. Just a little more lost, just a little more broken.

“Harry Potter,” Malfoy said, letting the name roll off his tongue, “I never thought I’d see you again.”

Harry managed a small smile, he was still in the middle of deciding if he should run away, “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” His feet kept him planted. Through the years had aged him, he still wasn’t sure of himself. He wasn’t sure if he could manage making a new friend, just to disappoint them.

“I honestly didn’t think you’d agree to meet me, after everything.”

“Well,” Harry said, after a long-drawn-out breath. After everything he’d been through, he supposed he should give it a shot. “I’ve been hanging out with the right sort of people for a while now. I think- I think I need to get to know the wrong kind.”

“Ah, well, I suppose I earned that title.” Draco shifted his weight between his feet, he didn’t dare make eye contact, “It’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, I’m surprised I feel the same.” Harry gestured to the building in front of them, “Shall we?”

Draco nodded and the two men walked into the small and rather unkept pub that still smelled the same as it did when Harry first entered it. They passed through and right out to Diagon Alley, all while an uneasy feeling passed through them. They were quiet, the air between them unfamiliar and new, it had been a long time. The War had come and gone. They grew up, they had children, and their friends had their own lives. They were still stuck, trying to figure it out. It was all too much for people who had too much become their normal when they were growing up.

“I, um, I wanted to say,” Draco broke the silence as they made their way past the many shops, all colorful and similar in the way any playground is similar to a child, “I’m sorry.”

“I am too,” Harry replied. He hadn’t meant for his words to be so short, he felt he owed him a real apology, but he couldn't find the words.

The two men came to a small teashop tucked in between an even smaller bookshop and a rundown post office. Harry held the door open to allow Draco to enter first. A small gesture, but for men who had to fight for air often, it meant more than it should have.

After they had placed an order for tea, they made their way to a secluded corner in the back of the shop. The room was lined with bookshelves and only contained two sets of tables and chairs, it made the room feel special. It was, in that moment, a place in the universe that only belonged to them. 

“How have you been?” Harry asked after sitting down. After a beat of silence, his face reddened, “That was a stupid question.”

Draco gave him a half-smile, “It was.”

A young witch came over and placed elegant teacups in front of them, then scurried off. The gentlemen picked up their cups immediately, thankful to have something to do during the silence that was very much avoidable. 

It was only after they had their first sips of tea when they finally looked at each other. 

Harry had filled out a little, he was no longer the underfed child with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The bags under his eyes had grown and his hair, now long and thicker, was in a haphazard ponytail where his wand was lazily stuck into. His skin had gotten darker, the lightning scar on his forehead looked white in comparison to his brown skin, but it finally stopped putting creases on his forehead. It looked like it no longer hurt.

Draco on the other hand was not as polished as he had been during his years at Hogwarts. His white-blonde hair was messy and longer than it had been, but not long that it reached his shoulder. His robes were creased and wrinkled. His skin looked like that of a corpse and his eyes were sunken, which only looked worse because of the dark bags under his eyes. 

They were both worn and tired. Fighting in a war does that to children. Losing their wives does that to men. Losing what they were fighting for does that to people. 

“Draco, I’m sorry.” 

He set his cup down, laughing at nothing funny, “For what? I was the one who tormented you.”

“For hurting you. And stalking you, and trying to pin everything on you, even when sometimes it had nothing to do with you. For everything you went through. We were children, you should never have to have gone through all of that,” Harry said calmly. All he wanted, and needed, was to express how he was wrong and that it wasn’t Draco’s fault.

“You went through more. I mean Vol- um, you know, the Dark Lord did try to kill you numerous times as a child.” Draco rushed, trying to defend that he thought he was more at fault. 

“Draco,” Harry sighed, watching the other man closely, “You know that’s not true. We were both manipulated. We watch our friends die! It’s okay to admit that things didn’t go great for you. It’s okay to say you needed or still need help.”

There was a brief silence before Draco responded, “I could have- I didn’t have to- I- it’s my fault.” 

His eyes were glossy, Harry could see exactly what Draco meant, what he was trying to say. He was a lost man. And a broken one. Harry had seen it in his own face.

“You didn’t know any better, your life was being threatened. What could you have done?” Harry takes a sip of his tea, watching the man across from him, “I forgive you, you know.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do. And I’ve learned a lot about forgiveness these past few years, I’ve learned so much,” And although his tone was sincere, there was something heavy that littered his kindness with uncertainty.

Draco let his head fall into his hands as he laughed a little. “God, what happened to us, Harry?”

“We grew up.” Harry paused a moment, “Y’know, Ginny and I split up.”

Draco looked up from his hands, but didn't really make any effort to sit up. It was enough of an invitation for Harry to keep talking.

“There wasn’t anything wrong, no hard feelings, but we just fell out of love. She had big dreams. I mean look at her now, playing for the Harpies, even with the kids, they travel with her sometimes, if they’re not with me. But we learned. I did love her. And I do still, differently though. We’re friends again. It’s nice. The kids still have both of us. I was upset originally. I was mad, of course, I was really, really mad. Mad at her, at the world, at myself, but I took a moment, alone. I visited where I grew up. You know the funny thing about that is I realized I had forgiven the Dursleys, so I forgave her, and myself and the world. Things happen sometimes. Things we can’t control, but it hurts too much to stay mad at everything, Draco. Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves.”

“I miss her,” Draco said barely loud enough for Harry to hear. “I miss her a lot Harry. I didn’t want her to die.”

“I know, Draco. I know.” 

Harry did something then, that he would never have imagined doing. But here in their own corner of the universe, Harry held out his hand from across the table for Draco Malfoy to take. And to both their surprise, he took it.

It was a simple gesture, but it was an olive branch. And it was gentle and filled with all the years of kindness that was shoved aside for petty rivalry. 

It had them both thinking, maybe, maybe they could have been friends, if there wasn’t a war that they had grown up in. Maybe they could have been friends many years ago if things had been different.

“She was such a wonderful woman, she had so much life in her,” Draco whispered, “She didn’t deserve to die so young.”

Whatever Harry wanted to say got caught in his throat. He had never lost a wife. Parents, friends, mentors, but a wife? Ginny wasn’t dead, just a friend now. Harry couldn't fathom what would have happened to him if Ginny had died. And how could he give him sympathy or kind words, when he’s lived through so many deaths and none of them got any easier. 

“I loved her so much, Harry. I would give anything to bring her back,” Draco took a quick sip of his tea, in an attempt to keep himself from crying, “ And what about Scorpius? How do I raise him without his mother?”

“Draco,” Harry said firmly, “You will be a great father and I believe in your ability to raise your son without your wife.”

“How do you know? I was awful to you as a child, how can you say that I would be a good father after all I’ve done to you?”

“Haven’t we both grown up? You’re here, having tea with me, if you were still the same boy you were at Hogwarts, you wouldn’t be here. You’ve changed Draco and because of that growth I believe in you.”

Silence crossed over the two men as Draco tried to understand what Harry was saying. It wasn’t awkward though, just quiet, contemplative.

“I’ll help you, if you need it,” Harry offered, “If you want my help.”

Draco looked up at him, “That would be nice.”

“Okay, whenever you need me, you give me a call, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

As they both enjoyed their tea, the little shop emptied, not that it affected them in their little corner, but the air felt lighter as the patrons made their way to bigger and better things. 

“Say, did you hear about Seamus and Dean?” Harry asked abruptly, his urge to fill the silence and just talk finally winning over the one wanting to just enjoy his tea and watch the way Draco ‘s eye shifted color in the slowly setting sun, not that he’d ever admit to that.

“What about them?” Draco asked cautiously. 

Harry smiled, a bit deviously, but that was neither here nor there. “They’re finally getting married. Their wedding is going to be around the end of August.”

“Oh, really?” 

“Yeah, I was going to go with Ginny, as friends now of course, but Luna invited her first, so I still need a plus one. And Ron and Hermione are going together, obviously, so if you weren’t busy, you could come with me.”

Draco raised an eyebrow, “Really, Potter? How are you even sure they wouldn't just kill me on the spot if I showed up?

“They wouldn’t.”

“Uh-huh, and what makes you so certain?” 

“Well Draco, I can’t tell you that, but you need to have a little faith in me. I mean, after all we’ve been through.” He said, laughing a little.

“Ok.”

“Okay as in you’ll come or you’ll have some faith in me.”

Draco’s heart felt a little lighter then. It was okay for him to indulge in the happiness in life, he just had to remember that. He smiled at the man across from him, “Both.”

Harry broke into a wide smile, “Both? Ok, good.”

“On one condition,” 

“Okay, what?” Harry asked, partially curious, partly worried. “What could the great Draco Malfoy possibly use as a bargaining chip?”

“You watch Scorpius for an afternoon so that I can… um,” Draco averted his eyes, “go visit my father.”

“That’s it? Really Draco, I thought you were going to come up with some kind of complicated task for me. I can do that.”

“Thank you.”

Harry looked down to find he had finished his tea, “So,” As he looks across the table, “Honestly, I don’t really know what to talk about.”

Draco gave him a small smirk, “Ice cream?”

Harry agreed and the two of them left the table in the corner of the shop, venturing outside into the bustling Diagon Alley. The sun was setting behind the oddly shaped smoke stacks and roofs, it made the streets and shops seem more like they were in their own place. A whole different universe.

Side by side, old enemies and new friends and someday something more, made their way to an ice cream shop. 

If tea had done anything, it made them think, maybe they could heal.


End file.
